The battle for Notre-Dame-des-Landes -- New Internationalisthttp://www.newint.org/blog/2012/11/30/zad-airport-notre-dame-des-landes/index.html
Visitor CommentsFri, 14 Dec 2012 22:38:01 GMTSat, 15 Dec 2012 16:51:22 GMTSimple Comments 0.961Matt in Londonhttp://www.newint.org/blog/2012/11/30/zad-airport-notre-dame-des-landes/index.html#comment2
More on the same topic: on this Wednesday's edition, the "Canard Encha&#238;n&#233;" (a satiric weekly paper, more or less the French equivalent to the Private Eye) reports the story mentioned by Camille in his text, from the point of view of a doctor who took on her free time to go and help casualties at the site. It sounds like the police is understanding "non-lethal weapons" as "weapons that we can use any way we like because technically it doesn't kill". So, Flash-ball shoots in the face, stunning grenades which embed little pieces of plastic inside their targets, close to vital areas, and so on. To all of you who are over there, please take care of yourself, I hope that this silly escalation will stop before somebody is critically injured.Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:51:22 GMThttp://www.newint.org/blog/2012/11/30/zad-airport-notre-dame-des-landes/index.html#comment2Matt in Londonhttp://www.newint.org/blog/2012/11/30/zad-airport-notre-dame-des-landes/index.html#comment1
I've just read on "Le Monde" that the regional council (socialist) has launched two tenders for a total value of &#8364;190000 in order to "elaborate a lobbying strategy to promote the new airport to the institutions and the general public" - see http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2012/12/14/promoteurs-d-aeroport-controverse-cherchent-specialistes-du-lobbying_1806449_3244.html for the full article in French. That really sounds like money well allocated ...<br /><br />Regarding Ayrault, I doubt that his tenure as prime minister will last for much longer. Traditionally in France prime ministers have always acted as "fuses" for the president - they would take the blame for unpopular decisions and would be dismissed when their position becomes too precarious (with the notable exception of Fran&#231;ois Fillon, who stayed - wisely - 5 years in the shadow of control-freak Sarkozy, and ended up his tenure mostly unharmed).<br /><br />In this case, Ayrault is putting himself in position to defend "his" project, which he lead while he was mayor of Nantes, and is dragging other ministers with him (some, like Manuel Valls, very enthusiastically, some like C&#233;cile Duflot, former leader of the Greens, not enthusiastically at all :) ). This mixture of positions of responsibilities will be a burden for him, and I personally think that it will be his demise (I won't cry for him though).<br /><br />Now the question is: who will replace him? That's where I am getting scared. I see Manuel Valls (current Interior minister, number two of the government) placing himself and I don't like it at all. This guy is very bad, he wants to be the Tony Blair of the French socialists (i.e. the person who will make sure that anybody remotely leftwards will never come close to a position of power in the long term - remember Ed Miliband's "there's nothing left-wing about me" speech after becoming party leader...). Some people nick-named Valls the "left-wing Sarkozy", I have to disagree with that, there is nothing left-wing within this guy, however he has all the bad points of Sarkozy (a bullyish populist ambitious control freak). I have many times voted for the socialists "by default" (i.e. as the lesser of two evils) but if Valls ever enters the presidential race, I'll either stay at home during the second round or vote for his / her opponent. To me, he is the main danger right now.<br /><br />More optimistically, I have great hopes that the airport will be stopped at some point. The socialists are first and foremost clientelists (i.e. they will follow their electorate to gather votes) and they are currently facing a growing number of people within their electorate who are tired by this kind of time-wasting white elephant projects. So I keep my fingers crossed that this will be cancelled before the city council elections in 2014. Keep going, best of luck to all the people involved in the resistance, and do not give up :)<br /><br />MattFri, 14 Dec 2012 22:38:01 GMThttp://www.newint.org/blog/2012/11/30/zad-airport-notre-dame-des-landes/index.html#comment1